ANC or ENC? The “noise cancelling” that does nothing for your ears

Two different technologies get sold under the same phrase, and they do close to opposite things.

ANC — for your ears

Active Noise Cancellation uses microphones pointed outward to hear the world, then plays an inverted version of it into your ears so the two largely cancel. It is what people mean when they say noise cancelling: the fan, the bus, the generator next door get quieter for you.

ENC — for the person you are calling

Environmental Noise Cancellation cleans up the microphone. It strips background noise out of your voice so the person on the call hears you instead of the street. It does nothing whatsoever to what you hear. Some brands write it ENx or call it "call noise reduction".

ENC is a genuinely useful feature. It is simply not the feature most people think they are buying.

How to tell which you are getting

Read for the word call. "Quad mic with ENx call noise reduction" and "ENC call noise reduction" are both describing the microphone. If a listing only ever mentions noise cancellation next to calls or microphones, it is ENC.

Real ANC listings say what they cancel and usually by how much, in decibels, and almost always offer a transparency or ambient mode to switch it off — because a pair with ANC needs a way to turn it off at a road crossing.

What that means for ours

We list the specification the manufacturer publishes rather than the word that sells best. The boAt Airdopes 170 (Rs 4,000) lists a quad-mic ENx system — that is call noise reduction. The Lenovo EA210 (Rs 2,749) lists ENC, likewise for calls.

Neither is being sold to you as something it is not, and if you mostly take calls on the move, ENC is the feature that will actually improve your day.

While you are reading the numbers

Playback hours are usually two numbers added together. "Up to 50 hours" normally means a few hours in the buds plus several recharges from the case. The number that governs your day is hours per charge. The Lenovo EA210 is honest about this in its own spec: 4 hours per charge, 30 hours including the case.

IPX ratings are not a swimming licence. IPX4 handles sweat and rain. IPX3 handles a light spray. Neither survives immersion, and no IPX rating covers damage from salt water.

What to actually ask before buying

• Is the noise cancellation for my ears or for my calls?
• How many hours on one charge?
• Is there a transparency mode — and if the answer is no, is there really ANC?

Ask us any of these about anything we stock. We would rather lose a sale than have a pair come back on a 7-day return because the box said one thing and the earbuds did another.